Your local Apple Store might close early thanks to the Vision Pro launch

As the Apple Vision Pro launch looms on February 2, 2024, it appears Apple is changing its physical Store opening hours to accommodate the new headset’s arrival.

The alteration currently only affects two days, and will only impact some stores, but if you’re planning to head to your local Apple Store in the next couple of weeks we’d suggest checking the official Apple website first to see if it’s hours have temporarily changed.

As things currently stand, on January 21 all Apple Stores will close at 6pm local time. Some locations are usually open until 7pm on Sundays, so you’ll have an hour less to shop at them. Any Apple Stores that usually close at 6pm on Sundays don’t seem to be affected.

The early closing time is said to give Apple Store employees time to be trained on the new Vision Pro hardware before it goes on sale to the public (via MacRumors).

Lance Ulanoff wearing Apple Vision Pro

Our US editor-in-chief trying out the Vision Pro. (Image credit: Future)

Then on February 2, stores will open from 8am so people can sign up for in-store Vision Pro demos – that’s a whole two hours earlier than Apple Stores usually open. Demos will be assigned on a first-come first-severed basis so if you want to bag one you’ll need to make sure you arrive early to avoid disappointment.

Apple has said it will be running Vision Pro demonstrations from February 2 through to February 4, though it’s currently unclear whether the other two dates will also see stores open early as well.

If you don’t need to test out the new Apple headset before it launches, then you can preorder the Vision Pro on the official Apple Store page from 5am PT / 8am ET on January 19, 2024. If you’re on the fence about the new headset, you can read our guide on if you should preorder the Apple Vision Pro

Also remember that only Apple itself is selling the Vision Pro. Scammers may try and take advantage of the hype – and rumored lack of availability – to sell fake versions of the headset. If you aren’t shopping on Apple’s website or in one of its brick-and-mortar stores then you almost certainly aren’t about to buy a legit Vision Pro headset.

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Microsoft’s ChatGPT-powered Bing AI gets smarter with more local knowledge

Microsoft’s Bing AI just got some more improvements, including one that should make the chatbot considerably more helpful when it comes to providing tailored recommendations based on your local area.

In a blog post introducing the latest changes, Microsoft acknowledged that it had received feedback telling the company that the ChatGPT-powered Bing needed to do better with local-related queries.

In other words, specific requests such as asking for the whereabouts of a store in your neighborhood, for example.

Microsoft informs us that it has bolstered Bing’s chops in this regard, so it’ll deliver “better answers if you’re trying to find a park, a store, or a doctor’s office near you.”

Other tweaks Microsoft recently applied to its Bing chatbot include increasing the limit of the max turns you can take (queries) in a single conversation from 15 to 20. Based on the allowance of 10 daily sessions, that gives you a limit of 200 turns per day in total.

Image and video search capabilities are also integrated in the chatbot now. These will pop up as answer cards, allowing the user to click ‘see more’ to dive into further detail with a Bing image search.


Analysis: Pushing forward and besting Bard

Obviously beefing up the performance of the Bing AI to do better with local queries is an important move to make. It’s no good having an all-singing and dancing AI (you have asked the chatbot to sing to you already, right?) if it falls down embarrassingly when it comes to making basic recommendations about locations and services near you.

Mind you, the enhanced performance for these kind of queries sounds like it’s in the early stages of getting a good coat of polish. As Microsoft puts it: “Expect us to make further improvements in local grounding based on your feedback.”

Like everything with Microsoft’s ChatGPT-powered AI, then, it’s very much a work in progress. Still, the amount of progress being made is impressively sure and steady, which has got to be a worry for Google.

Google’s rival AI, Bard, has been notably slow off the starting blocks. Indeed, it feels like Google forced Bard onto the starting blocks before it had even laced its trainers, because the firm felt like the new Bing couldn’t be left unanswered, seeing as the ChatGPT-powered AI is already boosting traffic to Microsoft’s search engine.

We’re told that Bard will become more capable, and will receive improvements to its reasoning skills later this week, and it’s clear enough that Google recognizes it needs to move faster with its rival AI. At the same time, it can’t afford any missteps as seen with Bard’s launch (and to be fair, with the Bing AI’s launch too, although Microsoft seems to have recovered pretty well from the mishaps Bing encountered early on).

Our main worry about Microsoft is that the success of the Bing chatbot – so far – could go to the company’s head. There’s already worrying talk of jamming adverts into Bing AI, which we very much hope won’t happen. That’s probably a forlorn hope, and if it turns out that way, this could be an area that Bard could turn to its advantage. That said, it’s not like Google won’t be surveying every avenue of monetization down the line, too – it’d be pretty naïve to think otherwise.

Both companies would do well to remember that these AIs must be perceived as helpful friends, though, and not ones with a hidden agenda. Or, more to the point we suppose, a poorly hidden agenda which becomes painfully transparent…

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